


Into the Night

by RedOrchid



Series: Quid Pro Quo + extras [2]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Ficlet, Gen, Jace-centric, One-Sided Alec Lightwood/Jace Wayland, Parabatai Bond, Quid Pro Quo-verse, Robert Lightwood/Michael Wayland - Freeform, Valentine is the worst, mentions of - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-28
Updated: 2016-06-28
Packaged: 2018-07-18 21:37:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7331503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedOrchid/pseuds/RedOrchid
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jace has gone with Valentine. On the second day on board the ship, he feels his bond with Alec break.</p><p>(QPQ-verse, pre-epilogue, Jace-centric)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Into the Night

**Author's Note:**

> I’ve modified the book!canon backstory of Robert Lightwood and Michael Wayland a bit for this ficlet, so that it works better with Robert’s behaviour in show!canon (especially towards Alec and Magnus in 1x12).

It happens just after sunset. Jace is lying back on his bunk on the ship, trying to keep his panic at bay about the fact that at least a hundred newly made Shadowhunters seem to already be walking around, ready for battle. He got thoroughly searched and stripped of his weapons, stele and phone the minute he set foot on board, and the feeling of being essentially defenseless isn’t helping him. No stele also means he’s been effectively cut off from all kinds of magical communication, so basically, if things go south, he’s in deep, deep shit.

Turns out being Valentine’s son isn’t quite the golden ticket into his operations as Jace had hoped it would be. Then again, Jace knows how to play a longer game when needed, and having grown up with the maniac should at least count for something. He just needs a bit more time and an in—something to get Valentine to trust him, or, for lack of that, something that makes him discount Jace as a threat enough to let his guard down.

There’s something else as well, a sense of unease in his gut that’s pulling Jace forward. He needs to know what kind of forces are at war inside him, what brings them out and how he can learn to control them. Something in Valentine is calling out to him, and whether it’s blood, or magic or things that were ingrained in him through every lesson Valentine taught him while wearing Michael Wayland’s face, Jace needs to _know_. He needs to get under Valentine’s skin and find out what’s at the core of him, to avoid going down the same path himself.

It sounds roundabout and desperate even in his own head. Jace sighs and turns his eyes towards the ceiling.

He notices right away when it happens. It doesn’t hurt—not in the usual sense. Instead, it’s quiet. Like a key turning in a lock; a soft _click_ deep in his gut and then… nothing. 

There is _nothing_.

Jace feels his heart start to race. He fumbles for his stele before remembering that he doesn’t have it, and then almost rips his shirt in his hurry to get it off and look at what’s happening.

What he sees makes his breath catch in his throat. Instead of the sickly pulsing, angry-looking rune he’s been keeping an eye on since taking his stele to it and blocking Alec out, there’s a perfectly healed one sitting innocently on his skin—a little faded at the edges even.

Jace presses the tips of his fingers against it (no pain—not even the clouded, muted version that’s been a constant for the past twenty-four hours), closes his eyes and puts his entire mind on trying to focus on the bond, to follow it back towards Alec.

Nothing. The bond doesn’t respond. It just—ends.

He’s been exiled. Alec actually went through with it.

Jace can’t breathe.

He slams his fists against the wall and then collapses against it, leaning his forehead against the cool steel as he tries to pull himself together. He can do this. It was his plan from the start, and it will work to keep Alec and the others safe. Jace just needs to remember that and everything will be _fine_.

He can’t stop shaking.

He wonders where Alec is now, if he’s feeling just as cut off and helpless as Jace is. Before Hodge betrayed them and everything started spiralling out of control, Alec was supposed to get married today. Jace wonders if he went through with it, or if he changed his mind at the last minute and decided to give himself a chance with Magnus.

It kills him that he has no idea which option is more likely. Fuck, but they really managed to screw things up between them. And the worst thing about it is that Alec is still the first person Jace wishes he could talk to right now. He drops his face in his hands and lets out a groan in frustration.

Ten minutes later, the shaking has stopped, and his breathing and heart rate have slowed down back to normal. Jace closes his eyes for a moment, takes a long, slow breath and then gets to his feet.

Time to get to work.

* * *

“I’m cashing in an IOU,” he says, once Valentine opens the door to his cabin and motions for his guards to step aside, “For every shitty thing you did to me growing up—starting with faking your own murder and forcing me to watch. Where do you keep your liquor?”

Valentine raises an eyebrow in surprise, but steps aside to let Jace in. Then he walks over to a cabinet and opens the door to reveal a collection of dusty-looking bottles, likely left behind by whatever poor mundane was ambushed and killed to provide this base of operations.

“Bad day, son?” he asks jovially, taking out a bottle and handing it to Jace.

Jace takes it, twists the cork and puts the bottle straight to his mouth. Whiskey, apparently, which burns all the way down his throat. “Remember I told you about my bond with Alec Lightwood being messed up?” he says. “Problem fucking solved, I guess.”

That definitely catches Valentine’s interest. He’s on Jace faster than Jace can react, pulling away the fabric of his shirt to reveal the _parabatai_ rune on his hip. Jace recoils instinctively, but doesn’t get far before Valentine gets a good grip on him and hisses at him to keep still.

It sounds so much like back when his father would scold him to keep still for a healing rune that a short laugh breaks from Jace’s throat. He lifts the bottle back to his lips and takes another long drink.

“It’s not a spontaneous break,” Valentine says, tracing the lines of his rune in fascination. “In spite of what you’ve done to weaken it here...” He traces along the lines of the combined deflect and locking runes that have been branded across it. “Blocking your _parabatai_ from connecting with you? That’s cold, son. Seems it came back to bite you in the ass as well—this faded look right here? You’ve been exiled by the Clave.”

There’s a note of disbelief in his voice, as well as indignation on what Jace assumes is his behalf. Valentine traces the rune again, with a look of growing anger on his face. 

“So much for life-long loyalty,” he says, the corner of his mouth twisting into a bitter smile. “The Lightwood apples clearly don’t fall far from the tree.”

“Well, I _had_ to block him,” Jace replies, closing his eyes briefly at the way his heart clenches in his chest at Valentine’s words. “He was never going to understand why I needed to leave. He’d just have come after me and gotten himself killed.”

“Sounds to me like your _parabatai_ is a little on the clingy side,” Valentine says, raising an eyebrow when Jace can’t stop the surge of indignation on Alec’s behalf to show on his face. Valentine watches him intently for a few moments, and Jace does his best not to squirm. “Ah. I see how it is. And here I thought it was Clarissa who’d captured your heart.”

“It is!” Jace protests, then immediately winces. “I mean _was_. That’s—not going to happen anymore, obviously. But me and Alec are not like that. I’m not—”

“Let me guess, _he_ is, though?” Valentine interrupts, watching every emotion that plays across Jace’s face with great interest. He reaches out and puts a hand on Jace’s shoulder, and Jace has a vivid flashback to the rare times when his father would commend him on getting a move just right, or setting a new record on the training course. “It’s not uncommon, you know. Why do you think the Clave has such strict laws about keeping _parabatai_ on a nice, platonic level? The power that can be accessed by a pair that tap into the romantic and sexual sides of their bond is unparalleled. If the Lightwood boy has feelings for you, I’m sure you’ve skirted the edges of that power, felt it surge in the heat of battle, perhaps? I hear the feeling is indescribable.”

Jace takes another deep drink from the bottle and tries not to listen. It’s no use. Every word goes right through his skin, spreading out like poison in his bloodstream. He remembers when he first started noticing that Alec’s eyes would linger on him a little too long, the surge of power when he’d take a step closer than strictly necessary to ask Alec for a favour, and getting his way, every time. Once he got old enough to realise what he was doing, he did his best to pull back, but by then, the dynamic was already firmly established, and Alec was fuelling it just as much as Jace was, always putting himself out there, baring his metaphorical throat to Jace to try and get him to bite. Jace closes his eyes and swallows thickly.

“Having someone want you that much is a heady drug,” Valentines continues smoothly, one corner of his mouth tilted upwards in a smile. “I wouldn’t blame you if you let yourself indulge a little, you know. Not when it’s your _parabatai_. The angel knows I would have grabbed on with both hands if Lucian had ever offered me that kind of power. I mean,” He steps back and looks back at Jace with a smirk on his face, “how bad could fucking a man possibly be?”

Jace feels his face heat, anger rising inside of him for Alec, for how cheap and dirty and _irrelevant_ Valentine makes things sound. He presses it down and reminds himself to keep calm, takes another drink, “I wouldn’t know.”

Valentine chuckles. “Want to hear something funny?” he says. “Main reason why Michael was such an easy target and I was able to impersonate him for so long? Robert Lightwood weakened their bond to the point where they were both in danger of breaking it. He’s a coward, you see, and once Maryse got her claws in him, he faded to practically nothing. Michael was his _parabatai_ and the only one who could really get him to come out of his shell. When they fought together… I’ve never seen a pair more in synch. It was like watching magic build and unravel upon their enemies; it was beautiful.”

“So Robert weakened his bond and now Alec broke his with me,” Jace replies. “I don’t see the funny part.”

“It’s funny because Robert and Michael were lovers,” Valentine tells him. “In absolute secret, of course, until they got caught. By Maryse. And when I say that hell hath no fury, that’s an understatement of her reaction. I thought she’d kill them both, but well, you know Maryse Lightwood—appearances had to be kept, and she was already carrying Alec, so Robert’s little scandal needed to be kept under wraps. To this day, I have no idea what she made him do, just that it broke Michael to the point where he didn’t care anymore whether he lived or died. So when things got… difficult and the Clave started closing in, his was an easy identity to assume. Meaning Robert Lightwood practically created the situation that would end up breaking his own son’s heart twenty years later. I don’t know about you, but I call that karma.”

“I call it murder,” Jace says, unable to bite his tongue any longer. “And I swear to God, Valentine, if you so much as _think_ about hurting Alec—or anyone else at the Institute—I’ll make you _wish_ you died in that fire all those years ago.”

Valentine raises an eyebrow in surprise, tilting his head as though he’s seeing Jace in a different light.

“You’ve grown a pair since I knew you,” he says eventually. “I like the fierce loyalty; we’ll have to keep working on the way you still wear your heart on your sleeve.”

Jace opens his mouth again; Valentine holds up a hand to silence him. “Don’t waste your breath. I have no plans to kill off your adoptive family, Jace. Robert and Maryse will have to pay for betraying the Circle, of course, but there are _so_ many ways to do it without touching a single hair on their heads. And once you’ve gotten over the first shock that your _parabatai_ has betrayed you—has _broken your bond_ and _cast you aside_ —I’m confident you’ll become more… flexible on the issue.”

He puts a hand on Jace’s shoulder and gives it a firm squeeze. “Now, what do you say about coming with me to inspect the new recruits? They need to get to know their leader’s son if they’re to follow him into battle, after all.”

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are love! <333


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